template <class InputIterator, class Size, class ForwardIterator>
ForwardIterator uninitialized_copy_n(InputIterator first, Size count,
ForwardIterator result);
Description
In C++, the operator new allocates memory for an object and then
creates an object at that location by calling a constructor. Occasionally,
however, it is useful to separate those two operations. [1] If each iterator
in the range [result, result + n) points to uninitialized
memory, then uninitialized_copy_n creates a copy of [first, first + n)
in that range. That is, for each iterator i in the input range,
uninitialized_copy_n creates a copy of *i in
the location pointed to by the corresponding iterator in the
output range by calling construct(&*(result + (i - first)), *i).
ForwardIterator's value type has a constructor that takes a
single argument whose type is InputIterator's value type.
Preconditions
n >= 0
[first, first + n) is a valid range.
[result, result + n) is a valid range.
Each iterator in [result, result + n) points to
a region of uninitialized memory that is large enough to store
a value of ForwardIterator's value type.
Complexity
Linear. Exactly n constructor calls.
Example
class Int {
public:
Int(int x) : val(x) {}
int get() { return val; }
private:
int val;
};
int main()
{
int A1[] = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7};
const int N = sizeof(A1) / sizeof(int);
Int* A2 = (Int*) malloc(N * sizeof(Int));
uninitialized_copy_n(A1, N, A2);
}
Notes
[1]
In particular, this sort of low-level memory management is used
in the implementation of some container classes.
[2]Uninitialized_copy_n is almost, but not quite, redundant. If first is an
input iterator, as opposed to a forward iterator, then the
uninitialized_copy_n operation can't be expressed in terms of
uninitialized_copy.